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Usually when these teams meet in the Stampede City, it becomes western night..

This time, the Calgary Flames and Nashville Predators decided to make it turn-back-the-clock-night — all the way to the 1980s.

The Flames and Predators are both low-scoring teams in wait-until-next-year territory as far as their Stanley Cup playoff hopes, which prompted expectations Friday’s clash at the Dome would be a snoozer.

Instead, the Preds came out on top of a 6-5 clash that harkened back to the days of mullets, acid-wash jeans and Atari.

“That was an old-school game, I guess. It was back and forth,” said Flames captain Mark Giordano, who collected a pair of assists. “We did a lot of great things and had a lot of good spurts, especially offensively, but we gave way too many chances off the rush. We had too many turnovers. That’s what hurt us in the end.”

Shea Weber’s late powerplay goal — to nobody’s surprise, it was a rocket of a shot — broke open a 4-4 deadlock, and moments later Matt Cullen netted the eventual winner to cap a four-point game to snap Nashville’s three-game losing skid.

Michael Cammalleri’s second goal of the game — his seventh in six outings — with just over two minutes remaining led to a wild finish, but the hosts couldn’t net the equalizer despite several close chances.

“I thought we almost had one at the end there, too,” Cammalleri said. “It would have been nice. You can’t expect to win games when you give up six, for sure. One thing we’re proud of, especially in the last little while, is not giving up as many chances.”

Sure, the Flames weren’t enthralled with their game — head coach Bob Hartley was succinct: “We worked very hard to come back a few times in the game, but the way that we were committed defensively tonight, I don’t think we had a chance.” — but those among the announced sellout crowd of 19,289 gave their charges a huge ovation at the final buzzer.

You don’t often see that when a team loses and sits 26th overall at 28-35-7.

“That was nice to see,” Giordano said. “We had a great last two minutes where we put the pressure on and had tons of chances to bury it. It just wouldn’t go for us.

“Nice to see, but we have to be better in our own zone to get wins out of those games.”

The Preds arrived in Calgary having managed just two goals in their last three games, but equalled that on their first two shots when Victor Bartley potted his first NHL goal 49 seconds before Weber made it a 2-0 lead.

Instead of leading to a runaway affair, it set the wheels in motion for a crazy clash.

By the time the second period was in the books, both starting goalies — the Preds’ Pekka Rinne and the Flames’ Joni Ortio — were hooked.

The Flames also scored a pair of goals less than a minute apart, with Cammalleri and Jiri Hudler doing those honours to make it a 3-3 affair before the midway point, only to see Viktor Stalberg restore the Predators lead but Mikael Backlund make it a 4-4 game heading into the third period.

It took a while for more scoring to come in the final frame, but nobody left the building feeling they were cheated of entertainment.

“We knew they hadn’t scored many goals lately, and sometimes when that happens, teams are due for bounces,” Giordano said. “A couple of their goals were good plays, but they knocked them out of the air and put them in.

“It was just one of those weird games.”

Kris Russell also scored for the hosts in a three-point performance, while Patric Hornqvist added Nashville’s other marker.

Ortio was sent to the minors after the game, a move due to the return of starting goalie Karri Ramo, not indicative of his performance.

The Flames travel to Edmonton to face the Oilers Saturday in the fifth and the final instalment of the Battle of Alberta.